Manphibian
Standard Member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2008
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 11
- Points
- 31
A couple of months ago, I took my first steps into vinyl. I must say, there is LOTS I have grown to love about vinyl playback:
I could go on.
However, one thing is driving me crazy - sibilance!
I’d say around 40-50% of the brand new records I’ve purchased include sibilance when played back on vinyl. This includes LPs such as Clapton unplugged, Nevermind, Surrealistic Pillow, Mezzanine, Thriller and more.
Now I’ve heard some of these records played on my friends’ (admittedly much lower resolving) system and there has been no sign of sibilance.
I have swapped all my other components in and out of the chain to confirm they are not adding sibilance. I have also used my turntable with a completely different system but the sibilance was still present.
The turntable I am using is a Marantz TT15-S1 (basically a rebadged Clearaudio, using the satisfy tonearm and Virtuoso Ebony Wood cartridge).
I have taken the turntable into two separate HiFi stores locally to ensure the turntable is set up correctly and still there is no improvement.
It really is infuriating. All I hear when I play an album is sibilance. I am at the point where all I can do is listen out for ‘s’ ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ sounds - and then get mad when they distort!
I’ve read numerous professional and user reviews of both the turntable and cartridge - but none of them call out any sibilance issues. However, it seems the only thing left to try is a new cartridge. The Virtuoso cart is an elliptical. Perhaps a cart with a shibata or microline stylus would track better? If so, can I just swap any cart onto the satisfy tonearm or do the arm and cart need to match one another? Do carts and arms have universal attachments?
Is there anything else I am missing or should be considering?
Thanks in advance
- having something by my side that physically plays the music
- interacting with the album halfway through (ie., flipping the disc)
- having the ALBUM back at the centre of my music listening experience (rather than playlists and the shuffle button!)
- not being able to skip tracks willy-nilly
I could go on.
However, one thing is driving me crazy - sibilance!
I’d say around 40-50% of the brand new records I’ve purchased include sibilance when played back on vinyl. This includes LPs such as Clapton unplugged, Nevermind, Surrealistic Pillow, Mezzanine, Thriller and more.
Now I’ve heard some of these records played on my friends’ (admittedly much lower resolving) system and there has been no sign of sibilance.
I have swapped all my other components in and out of the chain to confirm they are not adding sibilance. I have also used my turntable with a completely different system but the sibilance was still present.
The turntable I am using is a Marantz TT15-S1 (basically a rebadged Clearaudio, using the satisfy tonearm and Virtuoso Ebony Wood cartridge).
I have taken the turntable into two separate HiFi stores locally to ensure the turntable is set up correctly and still there is no improvement.
It really is infuriating. All I hear when I play an album is sibilance. I am at the point where all I can do is listen out for ‘s’ ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ sounds - and then get mad when they distort!
I’ve read numerous professional and user reviews of both the turntable and cartridge - but none of them call out any sibilance issues. However, it seems the only thing left to try is a new cartridge. The Virtuoso cart is an elliptical. Perhaps a cart with a shibata or microline stylus would track better? If so, can I just swap any cart onto the satisfy tonearm or do the arm and cart need to match one another? Do carts and arms have universal attachments?
Is there anything else I am missing or should be considering?
Thanks in advance